The Feuchtwanger Family

Regina Lippman (1832-1921) immigrated to Philadelphia from Memmelsdorf, Bavaria, about 1846. After marrying Sigmund Feuchtwanger, she lived for a time in New York City before coming to Pittsburgh in 1887. At the time of her death, Regina Feuchtwanger was the oldest member of Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Regina and Sigmund Feuchtwanger had at least nine children, Josephine, Ida, Henrietta, Marcus, Henry, Aaron, Joseph, Simon and Belle. Ida Feutchwanger (c.1861-1954) married Jacques Weil (c.1853-1916), who had immigrated to Pittsburgh from Alsace-Lorraine about 1879. He became president of the J. M. Gusky Hebrew Orphanage, vice president of the United Hebrew Relief Association and a trustee at Rodef Shalom Congregation, where he was on the committee responsible for building the current synagogue on Fifth Avenue in Shadyside. He started J. Weil Malting Company at 1006 Penn Avenue downtown and employed several of the Feuchtwanger brothers in his operation. By 1900, Aaron, Henry and Joseph Feuchtwanger had taken over the business, a wholesale brewing supplies company under the name Feuchtwanger Brothers at 1006 Penn Avenue. They filed for bankruptcy in 1910. All three brothers later moved to Illinois. Belle Feuchtwanger (1876-1961) married Abraham J. DeRoy in 1900.

In 1891, Marcus Feuchtwanger (1862-1944) married Nellie Sunstein, whose family was also in the liquor business. Marcus and Nellie Feuchtwanger moved to New Castle, Pa., about 1900 when he became manager of the Standard Brewing Company and a director of the New Castle Savings & Trust Company. He later acquired a large horseracing track in New Castle. He sold his interest in the brewing company in 1921, when prohibition forced the operation to switch to making soft drinks. He was known for charitable giving and received considerably attention for donating more than 100 tons of coal to the poor.

The Feuchtwangers quickly became the most prominent Jewish family in New Castle. Marcus Feuchtwanger was the first president of the local B’nai B’rith lodge. Nell Feuchtwanger was the first president of the local National Council of Jewish Women chapter. They regularly held religious services in their home in the years before Reform Jews had a congregation in the city and were instrumental in founding Congregation Temple Israel in 1927. Marcus Feuchtwanger was president of the congregation from its founding until his death in 1944 and used his Pittsburgh connections to bring well known rabbis to the city.